1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a speech reproducing device for controlling processing for reproducing received speech data and, more particularly, to a speech reproducing device in which the amount of memory needed is reduced so as to reproduce long-time speech such as conversation.
2. Description of the Related Art
One conventional speech reproducing device for controlling operation in a speech reproducing system which reproduces received speech data is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. Heisei 1-116699. The structure of the speech reproducing device described in this literature is shown in FIG. 4.
In this conventional speech reproducing device, a discrimination circuit 101 detects an input from a microphone 100 and supplies a write instruction signal to a memory 102 to store the input from the microphone 100 in the memory 102 in response to a predetermined clock signal. Then, a reproduction speed selecting switch 103 selects a reproduction speed of speech data stored in the memory 102 and the speech data is read at the selected speed based on a clock whose speed is determined by a read instruction signal output by a reproduction control circuit 104. In other words, speech data written on the memory 102 is reproduced at an arbitrary speed through control of the clock speed at which it is read out of speed determined by the reproduction speed selecting switch.
The above-descried conventional speech reproducing device, however, has a drawback that the capacity of the memory 102 is not sufficient for recording speech data of common conversations.
More specifically, the above-described conventional speech reproducing device is intended for storing speech data of a single, relatively short period of conversation and is therefore practical in terms of that objective. However, it is not unusual for common conversation to take several tens of minutes. Speech data of such conversation is so enormous that the memory 102 used in the above speech reproducing device does not have sufficient capacity to store the entire part of such conversation.